FAA halts El Paso flights for 10 days, citing ‘special security reasons’
A sign at the El Paso International Airport (ELP) on December 25, 2025 in El Paso, Texas. (Kirby Lee/Getty Images)
(EL PASO, Texas) — The Federal Aviation Administration issued temporary flight restrictions over El Paso, Texas, and Santa Teresa, New Mexico, prohibiting all flight operations there for the next 10 days for “special security reasons,” according to a notice.
The notice said no flights could operate beginning early Wednesday within a 10 nautical mile radius of El Paso Airport, including from the ground up to 17,999 feet. The restrictions will remain in effect until Feb. 21, the notice said. This excludes the Mexican airspace.
El Paso Airport authorities told ABC News in a statement, “The FAA, on short notice, issued a temporary flight restriction halting all flights to and from El Paso and our neighboring community, Santa Teresa, NM. The restriction prohibits all aircraft operations (including commercial, cargo and general aviation) and is effective from February 10 at 11:30 PM (MST) to February 20 at 11:30PM (MST). Airport staff has reached out to the FAA, and we are pending additional guidance.”
The airport says airlines have been advised of the restrictions, and travelers are encouraged to check with their airlines on the latest flight information.
The airspace has been defined as “national defense airspace,” according to the FAA. Pilots who violate these restrictions could be intercepted or detained for questioning by law enforcement.
Failure to comply with these restrictions could result in the FAA imposing a civil penalty or revoking the pilot’s license. The federal government can also pursue criminal charges or even use “deadly force” against an aircraft if it poses an imminent security threat, according to the notice.
ABC News has reached out to the FAA for additional information behind these restrictions as well as to airlines about disruptions to their operations.
El Paso is home to one of the largest cargo facilities near the border, so these restrictions could have a significant impact on shipments as well. ABC News has also contacted air cargo carriers for any information.
Law enforcement on the scene after two people were shot and killed in Simi Valley, Calif., Dec. 1, 2025. KABC.
(SIMI VALLEY, Calif.) — A California doctor and his wife were shot and killed in their Simi Valley home in a targeted attack, not a random incident, according to police.
Dr. Eric Cordes and wife, Vicki, were shot multiple times in their open garage on Sunday. The couple was taken to a local hospital and later died of their injuries, the Simi Valley Police Department told ABC News.
Simi Valley Police said they’re actively investigating the murders and they believe there is no threat to the community.
Police would not reveal any information on possible suspects or the motive for the attack.
Dr. Cordes worked with Focus Medical Imaging for several years before his killing, the radiology clinic told ABC News.”
Dr. Eric Cordes was a brilliant, hard working doctor, and a respected colleague. He served the Simi Valley community and surrounding areas throughout his entire 30 plus year career. His tragic passing will leave a huge hole that will take a long time to fill,” Focus Medical Imaging said.
Adventist Health Simi Valley, where he also worked, called the couple’s killing a “shocking loss.”
“The Adventist Health Simi Valley community is heartbroken by the tragic deaths of our longtime colleague, Dr. Eric Cordes, and his wife, Vicki. Dr. Cordes was a highly respected, board-certified radiologist and beloved physician who served this community with compassion and excellence for nearly 30 years,” the hospital told ABC News in a statement.
A large portion of the damaged plane fuselage is lifted from the Potomac River during recovery efforts after the American Airlines crash, Feb. 3, 2025, in Arlington, Va. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. government admitted some failures and accepted liability for its role in the deadly Jan. 29 mid-air crash over the Potomac River between a commercial jet and an Army helicopter, according to a filing in a civil suit, but pushed back on a number of claims that were made.
The filing came in response to a suit brought by the family of one of the 67 people killed in the crash between a U.S. military Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines flight operated by a regional carrier. The family’s lawsuit serves as the “master complaint” on behalf of all deceased passengers.
The regional jet and Black Hawk helicopter both crashed into the icy Potomac River after colliding in midair, launching an overnight search and rescue mission, with no survivors found. Sixty-four people were on the plane and three Army soldiers were aboard the helicopter, which was on a training flight at the time, officials said.
The government attorneys, in their 209-page filling on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Washington, said that the pilots of both the Black Hawk and the regional jet “failed to maintain vigilance so as to see and avoid each other.”
And it admitted that the Black Hawk pilots’ failure to maintain vigilance was “a proximate cause” of the accident.
“The United States admits that it owed a duty of care to Plaintiffs, which it breached, thereby proximately causing the tragic accident on January 29, 2025,” the government said in the filing.
The government also conceded that the air traffic controller at Reagan National Airport did not comply with regulations that state “[i]f aircraft are on converging courses, inform the other aircraft of the traffic and that visual separation is being applied.”
But it did not concede, as alleged, that the actions of the controller were responsible for the crash.
“The United States denies that any alleged negligence of the air traffic controllers on position in Washington Tower during the accident was a cause-in-fact and a proximate cause of the accident and the death of DECEDENT,” the filing says.
And it denied, as alleged in the suit, that the extremely busy airspace above Reagan National Airport presented an “accident waiting to happen.”
The government conceded that while the airspace above Reagan National is “busy at times and the risk of midair collision cannot be reduced to zero” and “that aircraft have come into close proximity to other aircraft within the Class B airspace near DCA on certain occasions” it did not admit to “collective failures” that led to the crash.
The original lawsuit as it was filed says that among the factors known to the military was that there had been “a substantial number of ‘near miss’ events in and around DCA, which were required to be analyzed to ensure that a mid-air collision did not occur and required Defendants to exercise vigilance when operating and/or controlling aircraft in the vicinity of DCA.”
But the government denied the statement that those known misses “were required to be analyzed to ensure that a mid-air collision did not occur and required Defendants to exercise vigilance when operating and/or controlling aircraft in the vicinity of DCA.”
An attorney for one of the plaintiffs in the case, Rachel Crafton, said in a statement responding to the U.S. filing, “These families remain deeply saddened and anchored in the grief caused by this tragic loss of life.”
“We continue to investigate this matter to ensure all parties at fault are held accountable, and we await additional findings from the NTSB in an anticipated January 26 hearing on this matter in Washington, D.C,” said attorney Robert A. Clifford, who represents Crafton.
The National Transportation Safety Board is expected to release its final report with the probable cause and its recommendations by the anniversary of the crash on Jan. 29, 2026.
District Judge Ana C. Reyes, who was appointed in 2023, is presiding over the case, according to court records.
Editor’s Note: A prior version of this story incorrectly attributed allegations from the family’s “master complaint” to the U.S. government, which had reprinted those allegations in its Wednesday filing in order to respond to them.
Luigi Mangione appears for a suppression of evidence hearing in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan Criminal Court on December 18, 2025 in New York City. Curtis Means-Pool/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Luigi Mangione spoke out in court on Friday as Judge Gregory Carro tentatively scheduled his state murder case to begin on June 8.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett announced that Mangione’s federal trial will begin with jury selection on Sept. 8 and opening statements on Oct. 13. But Carro said Friday that he believes the state case should go to trial first.
“It appears that the federal government has reneged on their agreement to let the state, who did most of the work in this case, to go first,” he remarked at the beginning of the hearing.
Carro ended the hearing with a stern directive to defense lawyers, who repeatedly pushed back on the June 8 trial date.
“You have done a great job, so be ready on June 8,” Carro told the defense. “That’s it.”
Seconds later, Mangione himself protested the judge’s decision as he was escorted out of court.
Mangione, shackled and wearing tan jail attire, looked toward the gallery and loudly said, “One plus one is two. Double jeopardy, by any common-sense definition.”
Defense attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo repeatedly argued during the hearing that the June date would leave them unprepared and would be unfair to Mangione.
“The defense will not be ready on June 8,” she said. “Mr. Mangione is being put in an untenable situation that is a tug of war between two different prosecution officers.”
Prosecutor Joel Seidemann responded by arguing that the defense is trying to deprive [them] of a right to try the case” by creating a double jeopardy issue.
“It is absolutely unfair that Mr. Seidemann wants two bites of the apple,” Friedman Agnifilo said. “New York state has a double jeopardy law for a reason.”
“Counsel is seeking to jeopardize us out of the federal case,” Seidemann responded. “We have every reason to be the prosecuting authority.”
Seidemann argued that state prosecutors and investigators have done the bulk of the investigation and should be able to try a murder that took place on the streets of Manhattan. He claimed that the family of the victim, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, requested that the state case go first.
“That’s something certainly to be considered,” Seidemann said.
While Carro suggested that defense lawyers could resolve the conflict by asking the federal judge to delay the federal case, Friedman Agnifilo said she would not do so.
“It would be legal malpractice for us to do something that is not in our client’s best interest,” she said. “We have been working round the clock in both cases, fighting both cases.”
Carro said he could push the trial date to Sept. 8 if the Department of Justice decides to appeal a ruling in Mangione’s federal case.
Mangione, who is accused of gunning down Thompson outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel in December 2024, has pleaded not guilty to the state and federal charges. The federal judge last week took the death penalty off the table in the federal case.
